On August 9, Vice President Pence laid out an ambitious plan to establish a “Space Force” by 2020 as the sixth branch of the U.S. military. The new branch would be the first since the Air Force was formed shortly after World War II. Pence stated:
“The space environment has fundamentally changed in the last generation. What was once peaceful and uncontested is now crowded and adversarial. Today, other nations are seeking to disrupt our space-based systems and challenge American supremacy in space as never before.”
Pence cited he pursuit of new space weapons by Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran and the need to protect American satellites and missile defense. He also said the Pentagon would create a new position of assistant secretary of defense for space “to oversee the growth and expansion of the sixth branch of service.”
Representative Mike Rogers (AL-R) and Representative Jim Cooper (TN-D) — chair and ranking member of the House Armed Services Strategic Services Subcommittee respectively — have argued for a new Space Corps within the Air Force. They praised the Administration’s move in a joint statement, saying the Space Force “will result in a safer, stronger America.”
Legislation is needed to authorize the new military branch, however, and Representative Mike Turner (OH-R), chair of the House Armed Services Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee, said:
“Congress has asked DoD [Department of Defense] to study how we handle space. We still don’t know what a Space Force would do, who is going to be in it, or how much it is going to cost.”
Former Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James criticized the proposal, saying, “It is a virtual certainty that if a Space Force is legislation and goes through, it will consume a lot of time, a lot of effort, and absolutely will be a distraction.”
Former Secretary of the Navy and NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe called the Space Force “a solution in search of a problem” because, in his view, the Air Force is already doing a good job in protecting space.
To read more about U.S. space programs, see the September 2011 issue of Congressional Digest on “Space Exploration.”
